“A real Gem” – Destructoid at E3 “Offers a different experience for zombie game veterans” – Co-Optimus “Has a lot more going for it than smashing brains and gory, red goo ... With a surprisingly deep crafting system” – GamesRadar You're shipwrecked on an isolated island, a desperate castaway in a total freakshow world.

October 21, 2014

Survivors! A number of you asked for a free roaming mode while others wanted an endless survival mode. Well, check out the 2 DLCs being released on Steam today!

On One Shot Escape (http://bit.ly/1wk7HQ2) you’ll have just one chance to fix a vehicle and flee the islands, but watch out… resources are scarce and highly randomized…

On Barricade! (http://bit.ly/1rnH88t) you’ll have to spend your days gathering resources and fortify your position with barricades, obstacles and turrets to protect your friends at night from the incoming hordes of creatures…

Reviews

“How To Survive is more than just a solid zombie role-playing game, it's also one of the best games of the year. With its mix of Diablo-esque hack and slash and dual-stick shooter action, 505 Games' newest Xbox Live Arcade game is a real surprise. It has a deep crafting system and a world you can't help but want to explore. How To Survive rewrites the book on zombie RPGs!”
90% – Gaming Nexus

“While there have been several games that have recently released that fall into the growing zombie survival genre, How to Survive manages to do enough differently to earn its place among the crowd. The game’s strong emphasis on crafting and juggling basic human needs helps distinguish itself from other titles. Additionally, the story campaign features a tale that manages to contain a few plot twists despite its simplicity. One area where How to Survive shines is the game’s strange brand of humor which is helped along by the title’s decent voice acting. In all, How to Survive is recommended to any fans of either the undead or survival simulators. Those who enjoy intricate crafting or top-down gaming should also give it a look.”
4 Stars – Examiner

“In terms of graphic and sound design, How to Survive looks good and sounds even better. The lighting gives real-time shadows based on not only the source but the time of day as the shadows move with the passing sunlight. The island is beautifully rendered, and animations are fluid and zombie deaths are pleasingly gory, chunks of body parts will liter the ground and roll depending on the shape of the surface”
8/10 – Gamer Horizon

About This Game

“A real Gem” – Destructoid at E3

“Offers a different experience for zombie game veterans” – Co-Optimus

“Has a lot more going for it than smashing brains and gory, red goo ... With a surprisingly deep crafting system” – GamesRadar

You're shipwrecked on an isolated island, a desperate castaway in a total freakshow world. How will you survive? [/b]

Collect the pages of a Survival Guide and figure it out, of course! Find food, water, and shelter before you perish. Uh oh, is it getting dark? Figure out how to get through the night! While you’re at it, gather up some of this awesome stuff and piece together over 100 handmade weapons and tools—from shotguns to Molotov cocktails. Now you can defend yourself and your friends like a boss!

• Choose one of the three playable characters, each with different characteristics and skill trees.

• Explore four islands filled with unique flora and fauna and a variety of abhorrent monstrosities.

edit: updating review. evidently its getting some attention, so I figured I might as well expand and clarify.

tl;dr edition: neither good nor fun. do not buy unless its deeply discounted.

I can not refer this game in good faith. There are 2 major things wrong with How to Survive.

Firstly, take a look at the DLC. If How to Survive truly is an indie game, control of the project has been overtaken by greedhead corporate dumb think leadership. Someone (likely 505 Games) has opted to make DLCs out of basic features that should have been part of the basic game. Examples are an extra harder difficulty and a hardcore feature. Other DLCs (Heatwave) resemble what would have been unlockables for games only a generation ago. Lastly there are the DLCs that suggest the core game was released unfinished taking the cutting room floor scraps and selling them off as DLC when they got to them later. I don't know if the nickel and diming customers business model bothers you, but it sure as hell bothers me.

The second problem is the game itself. Its not good. How to Survive is a perfect example of the tidalwave of schlock being put out by the burgeonning indie industry. It is an inferior imitation of mainstream titles like Diablo and Torchlight. It tries to be unique and original with additional survival features like hunger, thirst, and sleepiness, but they're implemented in a way that make the game tedious and annoying. The quality is painfully amateur and inconsistent. Struggle as a melee character, but have 2 triple bladed boomerangs and you're so golden the game gets dull. The content is particularly slim. Each island is painfully small. And the game itself manages to be as repetitive as Diablo and Torchlight, but in the most flat, boring, and completely unrewarding manner possible.

How to Survive lives up to its lousy meta score. No idea why this game has such an overwhelmingly high positive customer review count. The $15 asking price with the lazy DLCs is crazy to me. Other games How to Survive is trying to be are the same exact price and offer more and better quality content minus the annoying survival gimmicks and DLC. Specifically either of the Torchlight games.

Honestly, my recommendation is to not buy How to Survive at all. If you absolutely must take the plunge, as stated in the tl;dr above, buy it when its 80-90% off. That way you won't feel too ripped off when you find out how painfully below average it is.

I really tried to give this game a fair try. It simply wasn't as interesting or enjoyable as it appeared to be in the Steam store. The premise is neat but the execution is lacking. Crafting could be cool, but most of the time your tiny inventory is full up with junk. You have no homebase so there's nowhere to store excess stuff. Also, where you sleep for the night is highly limited and really annoying. There is usually only one secure bed shack per island. And for some reason, when you go to try and use it, a red light and alarm goes off every time, alerting tons of zombies to your location for no real reason. The most entertaining aspect of this game is watching the short "Kovac's rules" videos. Save your money and buy State of Decay instead for a much deeper zombie survival crafting game with a better plot.

NOTE that for the record I use a Xbox 360 Controller for this game 100% of the time. There will also be a bullet point Pros/Cons review near the bottom of this.

How to Survive is in my opinion a well done game to say the least. The game has a simple yet elegant combat system that I found satisfying, it takes patience to truly master zombie slaying as you must take time to zero in your aim for those rewarding headshots. This is better then many other games as it adds a touch of needed skill to it. The game also contains a decent variety of zombies to slaughter including some undead animals that prove to be quite scary when encountered. Many zombie types also require you to change up your strategy as a nice bonus, while you normal zombies can be dispatched with melee weapons, zombies such as Fatties require a ranged approach as they will otherwise blow up in your face upon death. One issue I had here though was running zombies tend to get ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ when right on you and I found it hard to aim at them as they attacked while running circles around me. The island settings also do nicely, between varied terrain and well done lighting the game's presentation is both beautiful and terrifying. One of the game's strongest points is its well done crafting system, playing the game I constantly found myself wanting to find new items to combine to produce more deadly weapons and armor. This is further expanded by crafting and adding attachments such as scopes for homemade guns to decrease aim time or pulleys to give your bow more damage. Another nice mechanic the game has is a day and night cycle where at night an abundant number of more mutated and aggressive zombie type foe come out to play, what really sets this apart from other games is your ability to fight these off by simply staying in the light. With a campfire your safe and to travel you can simply grab a torch from the fire, however you will drop the torch to the ground if you need to use any other weapon, and while you can use a flashlight with a weapon it is a directional light, so if your not careful these creatures can come up from behind you and attack. The game also sports a decent Hunger/Thirst/Sleep system that adds just a little more spice to the difficulty, however if you acquire both skill perks to double these meters you'll find yourself rarely having to maintain them. The game contains a few different character to play as each with different stats and available skills to acquire. A couple of which have a unique ability to craft a specific item only as them. As said the game does contain a leveling system in which each level grants a skill point of your choosing, however out of the 12 or so skills I had playing Jack I only found 4 or 5 of them to actually be worth something. While the story isn’t the best it was still rather entertaining and when taken the time to scavenge and keep yourself properly equipped the main story ran about 15 hours for me across 2 days of constant play. Now though the game lacks any sort of structure building mechanic the game does allow you to drop items anywhere and will never disappear which really came in handy as I tended to have a hording problem in this game. I have a friend that I got to also get the game and together we found the multiplayer gameplay just as fun, you can either to a simple challenge which is essentially an island with a single goal such as finding a plane to escape. You can Co-Op the story, this part was especially cool as while my friend was just starting his story I was well into mine and I retained both my stats and all the items on me allowing me to easily aid him in his story. All in all I'd say this game is worth trying especially for any fan of zombie and/or survival game, to those of you I'd say you wont be disappointed.

So in a nutshell:Pros:-Satisfying combat system-Addictive crafting system-Well done setting-A decent story both in quality and length-Enemy variety-Day/Night cycle-Hunger/Thirst/Sleep systems-Level and skill progression-Multiple playable character-Rebindable Controls

Cons:-Zombie AI can be a little wonky but rare-Camera style made some areas extremely difficult to navigate-Some what low variety of melee weapons-Controls for aiming seemed to be off at times (Xbox 360 Controller)

One final note is that I found that getting information on more advanced stuff was hard, especially seeing how typing "How to Survive..." in an internet search engine usually found unwanted results.

My finally score for this game as a long time zombie and survival game lover is a solid 8/10, while its of course not a AAA title it does very well with what it has and I find myself strangely addicted to continue playing and watching as my character started as a hopeless shipwreck survivor and evolved into the perfect survivalist.

+ Crisp, minimalist UI+ Excellent tutorial; fun, interactive, and does a good job of displaying some of the charm of the title+ Voice-acting was of about average quality+ Minimap is functional and easy to read; objectives and points of interest are clearly marked and hard to miss+ Very detailed environment; the design and amount of inclusion is meticulous+ Foraging is wonderfully implemented; by doing away with bold POI markers in the overworld, you find yourself constantly searching for familiar leaves, shapes, etc.+ Except for a few small qualms I had with the crafting system (noted below), it is largely excellent; there are a refreshingly large variety of combinations+ You have the option to 'uncombine' items that you've crafted, thus freeing up the materials for re-use; this little quality of life feature is incredibly useful, and I feel that many crafting systems throughout the gaming world would have benefitted from it+ An appropriately moderate variety in creatures+ Some crafting recipes are only available for certain characters, thus increasing incentive to replay+ Exploration is both rewarding, and very much encouraged throughout the title+ The story did a suberb job of managing to not take itself too seriously, without falling into the classic pitfall of being cringey and annoying+ While the hunger and thirst meters fit well into the game, it was the fatigue meter that really stood out as a breath of fresh air; this added a bit more challenge and a greater feeling of urgency to the game+ Hunting was very fun and challenging; tracking wild game through a monster-infested island could be quite the rewarding challenge+ Nighttime operations were very well-handled, in that a setting sun very much puts you on edge if you're out in the open and far from a campfire+ Melee combat was solid and satisfying

- Zombies are largely generic copies of only a handful of models- During daytime, inventory is slightly too transparent; this results in a fair bit of squinting, but wasn't an experience-killer- You cannot craft stacks of items- Aiming (I used mouse and keyboard), while for the most part excellently designed, could occasionally prove frustrating and unreliable; picking specific targets out of an oncoming horde (something you will NEED to do) is difficult when you're cursor is constantly jumping between several front-rank targets- Could have benefitted from a larger, more comprehensive skill tree

Yet another fantastic game I totally ignored to buy and play until it was on 90% sale.. WHY GOD WHY?!

If you're a zombie fan you'll love this game. It is what it says: a survival slash n kill zombie game. Funny story, crafting, nice characters, nice music, day and night gameplay with quests.. So far so good! :)

Pretty good game, but camera work ruins whole gameplay in a cooperative mode. It's just annoying. It really bothers me and many other players too (i have seen a few posts about it, players actually begged developers to fix this). However, single mode is interesting and provides fun for couple of hours and i think that if you like zombie survival type games (and playing alone also) you will like this game. Is it worth buying? For single playing only, yes.

Very competent isometric zombie survival aRPG with a lot of depth and challenge. Its by no means perfect, for me the biggest issue was the excessive level of padding. For instance why cant I just use this one boat to travel to all the other islands and instead need to move to different locations throughout zombie infested islands to reach different boats in order to get to other islands? Padding that's why. Where HtS really shines though, is in the crafting department. There's a lot of stuff you can craft and improve as you discover new recipes books or just by experimenting with the stuff you have in your inventory.

The combat system won't turn any heads around, but its not too shabby at all IMO, especially the ranged combat mechanic. Now, the lackluster skills tree and the clown mobile safe houses mechanic was a little weird and slightly detracted from the experience, but not by much. I'm definitely looking forward to completing the Story(which was surprisingly cool with a nice twist at the end) mode on the highest difficulty and playing some more coop(which is pretty sweet btw) with my buds.

Getting fun from playing is the main purpose of games, isn't it? Well, this game is really fun. I am sure you will get a lot of positive emotions while killing hundreds of zombies, crafting new weapons and stuff and performing the tasks. Of cause it's much better to play with friend because this game is just made for co-op. But there is also a big problem in this game - bad optimization for PC version :P Also it's rather weird that developers don't make chat. No chat in co-op game... seriously?However, H2S is amazing :) Funny, interesting, vivid. Perfect game :)

Call your friend and go play "How to Survive". Right now! :D9\10 (optimization is really bad)

1) GameplayWell, it's rather classical. Using either a mouse + keyboard combination or a gamepad, you're hitting / slashing / shooting zombies. It works just fine with both, and you can switch to an axe with a simple press if you're getting swarmed with your bow. Obviously the game is an hack'n'slash with zombies so you can expect all its traditional elements: special zombies and bosses. How To Survive also features a neat craft system, so you can gather as much crap as possible in order to make the weapon of your dreams. One issue with that though, the inventory tends to be full most of the time since it's so small. As for the survival, you can hunt, gather plants or fruits, water, then cook it all before heading to bed.

2) StoryYou're a survivor, so you meet other survivors who just happen to want the same thing as you: survive in order to escape the zombie outbreak. Though the game is rather humorous, guess we'd all turn out crazy if zombies started to invade the streets.

3) GraphicsNothing much to say. The game looks nicey with "realistic" graphics, which somehow manages to feel refreshing. Hooray, no pixel shading!

4) CoopIt's as good as the singleplayer: there are more enemies and they tend to hit harder since you're two. Yes. Two. That is a bit disappointing, but at least they did it right. Well, almost. Both players have to stay in the same "screen" in order to progress, so don't expect to finish a quest while your partner is farming xp.

5) Conclusion: I picked it up for almost nothing and didn't actually expect the game to be that good, def one of the most pleasing hack'n'slash and coop game I tried. The survival elements and the crafting system tend to spice up the gameplay, which is just what the genre needed to last longer. I'd love it even more if the game was a little longer though... 8/10

Another indie game that deserves recognition! How To Survive is similar to Diablo in the sense that you have the same isometric camera angle and you eliminate tons of enemies - this time, however, it's zombies instead of demons.

You can pick one from the available 3 protagonists - each has different strength and their skill tree is also different. Attributes change automatically - when levelling up after a set amount of XP you get to decide only which skill to pick.

Our heroes pretty soon meet Kovac, a mysterious fellow fully dressed in armor, who provides us with guidance as to how to survive. He explains eating, drinking, sleeping and the importance of - most of all - weapon crafting. There are dozens of items out there and they can be combined in various ways. When looting you'll bump into new guides regularly and these can be looked at from the menu.

I like how many types of foods could be made to quickly quell our hunger or thirst. A special fruit or root even eliminated our tiredness. Sleeping is only possible at select locations - these are shackles that must be rid of the walking dead before they can be entered. Not only sleeping but saving our progress is done at these locations.

You find materials, you eliminate zombies, you pick up some herbs and fruits, you loot, free some locations, rinse and repeat. This is How to Survive in a nutshell. There are some side missions, extra difficulty levels and a separate challenge mode offering even more entertainment.

While an indie game How To Survive looks very decent. Once night falls new enemies appear who try to jump at you from behind. Your flashlight, however, provides the very source they are afraid of. This and fire are especially nice and I liked the fog effect, as well. The game employs some excellent physics effect, too. My favourite weapon from halfway through till the very end of the story was a boomerang I reinforced greatly with some bones and flint. Initially, however, melee will do along with a bow which you also get to make better and better.

In any case, I found How To Survive an entertaining experience. Too bad some difficulty levels (including new enemies and weather effects) and additional locations are only available in the form of DLCs. Make no mistake: if you liked it you'll probably pick them up, too, it's just a shame they have to rely on the same concept as some of the AAA developer companies do.

When discounted give How To Survive a try. But just the base game. And if you like Kovac and you accept his rules you can collect the DLCs, as well.

How to Survive is one of the Best Survival games I have played so far [24/3/2015]. It is about surviving [Duh] and finding many ways to Escape off the Island/Place that you are at. You can either play online, offline [local co op] and co op with a friend [counted as online]. There are alot of weapons you can design and make, to fight your way through. There are zombies that are weak, boomers and Mutant Giant zombies that have like zillion health.You can meet survivors all across the map, and they are asking for your assistance.

This is a very fun game, I recommend and really consider you to buy it.

Disapointing Co-op. Console Influence shows with the 2 players stuck on the same screen which is really clunky and frustrating.

The game gives you the impression of being full sandbox open world at first sight, but really you're stuck on relatively small Islands the whole time. The Islands themselves are quite cagey, mostly a succession of narrow spaces.

Crafting is simplistic. Suriviving isn't really hard and playing story mode feels almost entirely linear.

Lackluster option menu, especially as far as graphics are concerned.

Wasted money and Waste of good potential. There are too much decent zombie games out there who do what this game tried to achieve, but better.

the controls could be better definitely, same with the melee. I havent gotten that far in yet, its just not doing it for me. Yet for some reason I shedded 20 hours into dead island within 2 days..then got burned out lol

i just dont know how to survive when it comes for my enjoyment of this game or something

Very boring and tedious game, gets repetitive very easily. The islands are really small, the monkey quests are a pain in the ♥♥♥ and just stupid, the survival features like thirst and hunger are unique but annoying. Combat is mediocre, if you play as melee you struggle a lot, play with ranged weapons and wreck everything. The level system is just pathetic and there are less than 20 skills to level up, some of them just being completely passive and not helpfull at all. On top of that, the game wasn't really designed for mouse and keyboard. Paid like $1 for this game so not too much to worry about but I wouldn't recommend it anyway, it's just boring.

It seems this game was built of blocks or which is more appropriate to say - of patches like Dr. Frankenstein's monster: the general canvas of zombie, gameplay of isometric shooters like Alien Shooter, Alien Breed, Crimsonland etc., Lara Croft look of Abby and Tomb Raider styled menu, spiced it up with the Borderlands-ish Kovac. So it turned to be a very-very poorly made game with very-very cheap animations, bad controls, imbalanced weapons system (the best weapon in the game is a boomerang made of bones which can be made on the second isle (after 30 minutes of playing), not clear crafting system, not a breakthrough gameplay, pretty common story, a mash of re-used graphical solutions and an obvious lack of the art direction.All of the said above is usually requires more than an update, but a core functionality re-work, thus quite unlikely it to be fixed. I wouldn't recommend it for buying despite it's in a $5 bundle, also before buying I would suggest consulting the forums about the above mentioned points.

I tried to get into this game and like it, but the myriad of negatives overshadowed the few positives in the game. More often than not, I felt like I was fighting the clunky movement, mechanics and horribly designed UI more than I was the zombies. Not even the saving grace of co-op could make the horrid combat worth my time.

I've been told once the game pacing picks up and you begin gearing up the game becomes more bearable, but I'm not one to slog through several hours of bad gameplay to do so.

How to Survive is a game you can easily sink hours in if you like the genre.

The controls feel fluid and are easy to remember with Gamepad.Combat doesn't feel clunky(even have finishers). There's a simple yet solid crafting system.You actually have to drink, eat & rest in this game(Some ppl may or may not like that)

The story has some humor in it, but mostly found myself mashing 'A'.Skills are a bit bland (eg.''+X% exp at night''), but the different weapon combinationsmore than make up for it.

7.5/10

The price is a little steep, but it's a must-have when it goes on sale.

Game constantly stops working and freezing.Gameplay is not fun at all.Controller support doesnt even work properly.

No wonder the game was reduced by 90% when i got it. I would rather give birth to a baby out of my ♥♥♥ hole than play this game again.

(Update) Tried to give the game a second chance with the co-op still think its a load of s**t

You have to stay close to your partner at all times. Game says waiting for partner when no one has even paused the game. You dont even get the same gear for doing quests, eg we did a quest and my friend got a machete and i was still stuck with a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ stick!

God I play a lot of zombie games... I wonder what the new "zombie" will be and how long it will take to get here? Oh well, I shouldn't let that get in the way of telling you about How to Survive! HtS is actually a very enjoyable little game, kind of like Zombie Driver, Alien Breed and Diablo II ran a train on Krater. I can't put my finger on it, but it really did feel like I had played HtS before, and to me that's a really good sign that a game is made properly (at least to my liking, anyway). I found it challenging, but not so much that I wanted to go Super Saiyan on my screen, and was genuinely interested by the plot twists and creative story. I found this surprising because HtS, at first glance, looks like your run-of-the-mill horde grinder, but upon closer inspection I found it to be much more.The crafting system is elaborate enough yet easy to understand, that it is not only enjoyable, but essential to the gameplay. The environments are colourful enought that you don't feel like you've been sating at ants scurrying across tea-stained paper for hours, though a little more variation like cave systems would have added a bit of contrast. Everything worked, no bugs, no pulling my hair out looking for fixes or walkthroughs, and the in-game tutorials on how things work were humorously done, adding an element of comedy that you don't often see in survival games.If you're beween AAA titles and you're looking for something casual to break it up a bit, How to Survive has to be one of the best little games I've played in a long time. Fun, interesting, satisfying.